Jasmyn Lindorein

[reik]

Wet. Everywhere was water. It ran down her juvenile face, driven by the stinging pain in her back that kept her running. It was all over her body, streaming out of her pours as she ran and ran, pressing the loaf of bread against her tiny body with as much strength as her frail arms could muster. It rained onto her from the skies above, mingling with her tears and sweat as she forced herself onwards. She could feel it, splashing in all directions as her bare foot slammed into the puddle. Dropping down her messy, deep-brown hair.

‘Stand still, ye bloody thief!’

He was coming closer. She had to run. She hated this life, but what could she do?

Ye can’t change your lot in life, kids. There’s no escape from fate. Ye’re all thieves. No one cares about street scum like ye. Ye are thieves, and ye will be thieves yer whole life. Well, maybe not the girls. Depends on how pretty ye grow up to be!

That old bastard Henderson was right. There was no escape. Not from fate at least. From the fat baker behind her, there certainly was. The rain was getting stronger. Perfect. She rushed around the corner and quickly leapt under a wagon before the fat baker could follow, the sound of the rain masking her fall. She saw the man’s feet move past her position. He’d realize where she was soon enough, but then it would be to late. Quickly, she leapt out from the wagon again, dashing back the way she came.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The morning sun slowly dried her. Lazily, she gazed down from the small, flat building she was lying on. Her eyes wandered over all the colourful people in the street. How she envied them. She glanced down herself, her gaze wandering from her tiny bare feet, over her scratched up legs, over the torn, old rags she wore. A small smile appeared as she looked at the bread. It was still all wet, but at least she had something to eat. She ripped off a small piece and stuffed it into her mouth, her attention turning to the happy, shiny people in the street.

‘Did you hear already? They say that one of the people that took part in the battle in the sky over the city is the new Mystra!’

‘Are you crazy Lars? As if a mere human could become a god.’

‘It’s true I tell you!’

She frowned. What a silly man. He was dressed really fine. Probably was stinking rich. If one was stinking rich, one probably thought one could change one’s fate. But if one was stinking rich, why should one want to do it? Silly man. He had a silly name even. Lars.

With a sigh, she turned away from all the shiny, happy people and stretched out on the roof. There had been something going on above the city recently. The people said the Time of Troubles had ended. She didn’t really know much about that though – such didn’t really matter when trying to survive here.

A human becoming a god.

Ridiculous. Wouldn’t that be to escape fate? To become something more then one was? The words from that bastard Henderson came to her mind once again. He was probably right. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, letting the warmth from the sun flow through her tiny body.

‘You’d do well to believe Lars.’

She blinked a little. Couldn’t those people shut up? Maybe she should throw a stone at them or something. Shuffling over to the border of the roof, she peeked down, her hand reaching for a small stone. How annoying.

She froze.

A priest?

No doubt. A mystran priest. Why would he speak such blasphemous words about his own goddess? She stared at the priest, halfway expecting a bolt of divine fury to slam down from the heavens to vaporize him for his heretic words. One second passed. And another. And another.

No bolts of divine fury.

Maybe his goddess had better things to do then punishing priests? But no, that didn’t make sense. Why would he talk like that at all? Unless… it was true.

A mortal girl became a god?

A human became a god.

Slowly she rose on the roof. The little stone dropped out of her hand, down the roof , passing just an inch before Lars nose. The group of men looked upwards.

She jumped down the low roof, nimbly landing on her feet. It hurt, but it didn’t matter. Rising again, she straightened her back and flicked her hair over her shoulders with a quick movement of her head.

Forget that bastard Henderson.

If some random human girl could become a god, she could at least become more then a bloody thief or a freaking whore.

Lars, the priest and his friends just stared at the little girl as she strode past them. Once she was out of sight, one of Lars’ friends raised his voice once more, still gazing into the direction she went.

‘Well, guess it could be, Lars. Stranger things have happened.’

[reik]

‘Pike off, girl. This is a decent restaurant. You don’t even have clothes. Why in the nine would I let you work in my kittchen?’

Covered in a dirty apron, wearing an old chef hat on his head, the massive, towering man stared down at her. For a moment, she felt it was pointless. Her gaze dropped down the rags she wore to her bare, dirty feet.

There’s no escape from fate.

She shook her head and lifted it, wandering up the wall infront of the window he was leaning out of, passing the ‘Kittchen-help wanted’ shield hanging from it, untill she stared back into the cook’s eyes.

‘You should let me work here because it matters to me.’

The cook rolled his eyes.

‘Now ain’t that an argument? And why, pray tell, should it matter to me that it matters to you, huh?’

His stubble-covered face twisted into an amused smirk as he leaned further out of the window, his face hovering mere inches away from the little girl’s. After a few seconds of enduring his smelly breath and going through what she wanted to say again, she lifted her voice.

‘I am not some bored lass that was sent by her parents to earn a few extra copper. My work for you would offer me a chance. Maybe my only chance. I would not throw it away easily. I will work harder then your other helpers ever did, because I have everything to loose.’

His brows raised a little. Not much, but they raised ever so slightly. A frown escaped him. She steadied her breath and kept her gaze locked with his. After staring at her thoughtfully for a few seconds, he shook his head.

‘You can tell me much, lass. They all say ‘Ohh, I will work so hard, Chef!’. Go back to the hole you crawled out o…’

She could feel her panic rising. It had been a stupid idea. As if anyone would want scum like her to work for him. But she needed a way to earn money to get out of here. She blinked once. That was it. She lifted her voice, shamelessly disrupting the man in mid-sentence.

‘I will work for free the first month. You can see if my words are true in that time. If you are not content, you can throw me out at any point and lost nothing, if you are then you gained a good worker. You can only win, can’t you?’

He blinked at the disruption and tilted his head at her. If there was one word he liked, it was ‘free’. He stared at her for another moment. Free was good. And she was right – he could just throw her out if she didn’t work. Not like she had parents that would complain to him afterwards.

‘Fine. You can have the job. Just be careful no one sees you leave my restaurant looking like that.’

She wanted to scream up in joy.

What was a month of free work compared to the chance for a future?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It sure was heavy. And it sure was cold. Even through the cloth wrapped around her hands, she could feel the cold metal of the large pot. No point in complaining though. She kept dragging the heavy thing through the snow. Contact with the head of a drunk customer during a recent bar brawl had not really done the pot well, so the Chef had told her to drag it to some friend of him and have it fixed. That silly old man. She wondered how many times that old pot had been fixed already, and how much more often it would be before that miser would finally replace it.

She stopped for a moment and gazed at the snowflakes dancing around her. She smiled. She had always been scared of the winter. It was cold and she could neither afford a warm place to stay nor decent clothing. Looking down herself, she couldn’t help but feel proud. She had worked for quite some time now. The pay was very low, but the Chef let her have the left-overs of the guests and by now even allowed her to sleep in the kittchen at night.

What few money she had earned she had invested in a pair of sturdy boots and some warm clothing. It had been a good investment she thought. It kept her much warmer then the rags she was used to, and she did not look like a beggar or thief in it.

Shaking her head, she grabbed the old pot again and continued to drag it down the street. Now just around that corner and she’d almost be there.

With a silent ‘thud’, dampened by the thick clothing, she bumped into someone just as she passed the corner. She made a futile attempt to catch herself on the icy ground, but ended up landing on her back ungracefully. Making some muffled sound, she looked up at the man she had bumped into.

‘Why, sorry little miss! Let me help you up!’

The middle-aged man dropped to a knee and held out a hand, smiling at the tripped girl. She took it and allowed him to pull her up. Their eyes met and they both froze for a moment.

‘… did we meet before by chance, little miss? I’m Lars – Lars Lindorein.’

[reik]

Did that woman ever clean up here at all? A smirk plastered on her young face, she dusted off another vase and put it back onto the drawyer. Finally she was done. Straightening her uniform, she looked over the room one final time. Looked like she was done for sure. Stuffing the dustrag into one of the pockets in her white apron, she headed out of the room into the corridor, carefully closing the door behind her to not make any noise.

Finally she was done for today. Maybe she should get one of the books from the library and go outside a bit. The estate did have such a nice garden.

She blinked a bit. The soft sound of rain drops hitting the roof. With a sigh she gazed out of the window at the pretty garden below. There goes that idea. She lifted her gaze again but stopped, eyeing her reflection in the mirror. She looked so different from two years ago. No rags, no speck of dirt on her. She smiled.

‘… did we meet before by chance, little miss? I’m Lars – Lars Lindorein.’

His brows furrowed a bit. He probably recognized her. She recognized him for sure. He somehow looked even richer then before, though she couldn’t quite say why. The man looked her over and shook his head.

‘You sure look better then last time, little one.’

Blablabla. Did that man not have anything better to do then talking to her? She had work to do. The Chef would be angry if she took to long, and she didn’t really care for him ranting for hours.

‘Thank you. If you’d excuse me though, Sir, I have work to do.’

She nodded towards the pot, hoping the guy would shut up and let her go on.

‘Oh, of course. Sorry for bumping into you, little miss.’

He shrugged a bit and reached into a small purse hanging from his belt. Taking her tiny hand for a moment, he pressed something inside and walked past her. Slowly she opened her palm to look what it was. Her jaw dropped as she held up the golden coin. She had never held one of those before. That thing was worth more then what she’d earn in months! All the things she could buy from it! It was…

She blinked. No. She had an better idea.

Letting out a small sigh, she grabbed the coin tightly and whirled around, flinging it past the merchant’s head, causing it to hit the housewall next to him and drop into the snow in front of him.

He stopped in his tracks and eyed the coin for a moment before looking over his shoulder, seeming a bit perplexed.

‘That’s a real coin, you know? You shouldn’t throw it away.’

Steadying her breath, she stepped towards him, staring right at him. Worst case she’ll still have the coin, but in the best case… she lifted her voice, speaking calmly.

‘You think you are doing me a service by giving me this?’

The merchant blinked. His perplexed face told her he definitly thought she’d be happy about it. He cleared his throat as if he wanted to say something, but she continued without waiting for him.

‘First off, what do you think will happen if I go pay anything with that? Every mugger will think I have more of that, and that’s anything but good, you know? Second, you are not helping people by giving them things for free. It’s a hard world, and we all need to be able to take care of ourselves. You know why I am wearing decent clothes now unlike the last time? Because I stood up and went out to work and earn it. By giving poor, young people money like that, you only make them foolishly believe fate would take care of them somehow. You want to help me? Or maybe just appology for bumping me over? Then keep that coin and give me work that pays more then a copper a day.’

The merchant just stared at her for a moment. Then he laughed. Was he making fun of her? He’d better do not. The height of his groin was just perfect for it to be introduced to her fist.

‘You’re a weird little missy, you know? But then, I already knew that when you leapt down the roof right in front of me.’

He looked down at her thoughtfully. Weird? Hmpf. Still, it might pay off to wait a moment to let him think her words through fully. Tilting her head a bit to the left, she lifted one of her brows.

‘Hm. I don’t really have any work for little girls. Especially not from the street. But… I kind of like you, little miss. You remind me of myself. Well… My maid keeps complaining about wanting some help, saying she’s getting old all the time. Didn’t really plan to get her one, I have little patience for people complaining. But alright – I’ll give you a chance to help yourself.’

She smiled as he picked up the gold coin, putting it away, and reached for the pot again herself.

‘Not many people of your status would give up gold that easily, little miss.’

She stepped past him, dragging the pot behind her.

‘Then they are fools. A step forward is worth a fortune.’

Shaking his head briefly, Lars followed the strange little girl, grinning silently to himself.

She shook her own head and stepped back from the window. A step forward indeed. She turned and headed off towards Master Lars’ library.

There were still many steps to take.